What do victimized women think?

The press is buzzing over Cardinal Marc Ouellet's comments that abortion is a "moral crime" and that it is unacceptable even in the case of rape. The National Post knows there is nothing new here and that Cardinal Ouellet is simply "reiterating conventional Church doctrine on the subject of abortion."

So what about abortion in cases of rape and incest? Surely we all agree that abortion in these cases is perfectly justifiable, right? But has anyone ever actually researched that question and provided an answer?

Amy Sobie, editor of The Post-Abortion Review, a quarterly publication of the Elliot Institute has:
"Our research shows that most women who become pregnant through sexual assault don't want abortion, and say abortion only compounds their trauma...Typically, people on both sides of the abortion debate accept the premise that most women who become pregnant through sexual assault want abortions. From this "fact," it naturally follows that the reason women want abortions in these cases is because it will help them to put the assault behind them, recover more quickly, and avoid the additional trauma of giving birth to a "rapist’s child…it is commonly assumed that rape victims who become pregnant would naturally want abortions. But in the only major study of pregnant rape victims ever done prior to this book, Dr. Sandra Mahkorn found that 75 to 85 percent did not have abortions. This figure is remarkably similar to the 73 percent birth rate found in our sample of 164 pregnant rape victims. This one finding alone should cause people to pause and reflect on the presumption that abortion is wanted or even best for sexual assault victims...although many people believe that abortion will help a woman resolve the trauma of rape more quickly, or at least keep her from being reminded of the rape throughout her pregnancy, many of the women in our survey who had abortions reported that abortion only added to and accentuated the traumatic feelings associated with sexual assault...This is easy to understand when one considers that many women have described their abortions as being similar to a rape (and even used the term "medical rape), it is easy to see that abortion is likely to add a second trauma to the earlier trauma of sexual assault...Research also shows that women who abort and women who are raped often describe similar feelings of depression, guilt, lowered self-esteem, violation and resentment of men. Rather than easing the psychological burdens experienced by those who have been raped, abortion added to them…"

Maybe we should ask victimized women how they feel, instead of taking the word of abortion advocates.

One woman, Kathleen wrote:
"I, having lived through rape, and also having raised a child 'conceived in rape,' feel personally assaulted and insulted every time I hear that abortion should be legal because of rape and incest. I feel that we're being used by pro-abortionists to further the abortion issue, even though we've not been asked to tell our side of the story."